It wasn’t until researching my book Song of the Stubborn One Thousand and interviewing the strikers that I began to truly appreciate what the strikers had to do to win. The hardships they endured, the difficult choices they had to make, the incredible strength they demonstrated — they were just too stubborn to lose.
Neither AMLO nor President Sheinbaum has reversed the privatization of the retirement system. While the poorest have benefited from expanding social welfare programs, teachers remain on a treadmill, going nowhere.
The job of transporting transnational cargo is something Jesús Iturbero, whom we hear from today, loves to do. But when crossing the Mexico-US border, pressures from both countries have spoiled that kind of job satisfaction.
Asking for peace is dangerous, especially if it’s for a peace that means ending the violence enforcing injustice and exploitation. If you dare to speak out against that violence, you yourself will be subject to threat, attack, arrest — even murder. Maria Elena Valdivia found that out at an early age.
... when Esmeralda talks with such pride about her father at GM Silao, we’re reminded how powerful it is to also have family passing it down. In her daily work at Casa Obrera assisting workers build independent democratic unions able to negotiate better wages and benefits and working conditions, Esmeralda not only has the consciousness, she’s carrying on the work.
As Mexico City teacher Ángel Custodio tells us, teachers greatly influenced the 1917 constitution. Because they spent so much time with students and their families, they knew intimately that beyond reading, writing and arithmetic, the Mexican people needed rights and protections to secure their basic needs.
In an unprecedented reform of Mexico’s judiciary, on June 1, Mexico’s judges will be elected by the people.
... my understanding of capitalism started with Batman! In school, you don’t learn anything about how the world works. I learned later that with music, literature, comic books, a great joke — you can get people to look at things in a different light. That happened to me.
